La riga
La riga: Riga, line, row, queue, boundary, border
The line is the boundary that unites or divides cities, ideas, convictions, beliefs; the right (the good) from the harmful (the bad), lies from truth.
Riga is also the capital of Latvia, a country that does not know its own history before the 13th century—that is, before the Crusaders brought a new religion from Rome. The uncertainty about the past stimulates curiosity about the present. These artists want to discover what truth, justice, reality, current affairs—and the opposite of all these things—really are. They want to know which side of the line they are on, and what lies on the other side; they want to understand how truth can be found, and how it is even possible to know what truth is.
To speak of truth is a great challenge, because interpreters offer contradictory versions. We all know we can only approach truth, but this condition must not halt the search. Perhaps the work of these young artists is an attempt at that search.
If we assume that the line is our life, the end will always be the same for everyone.
The show
In the exhibition hall at Careof, works by four artists are presented:
Santa Oborenko (Cesis, 1975), Girts Korps (Sigulda, 1976), Kriss Salmanis (Riga, 1977), Martins Virbulis (Jurmala, 1978).
In the video room, works by about twenty artists are projected, all students of the VKN.
VKN
VKN (Vizualas komunikacijas nodala) is the Department of Visual Communication at the Latvian Academy of Fine Arts in Riga. Founded by Aleksandrs Dembo in the late 1980s, it is now one of the main centers for video art production in Latvia.
